We had our court date appearance this morning, and as Giles' English cousins would say, everything went "swimmingly"! All documents were in order, and we had a very good judge who was favorably disposed towards us. After one hour in a 50 degree courtroom (no sweating here!), we got our decision--10 days from now, Anna and Chris officially become ours. Needless to say we are all overjoyed. Giles' birthday is tomorrow (shhhh!), but he's already received the best birthday present possible. We thank God for His faithfulness, and would just like to also thank all of you who encouraged us and prayed for us.
I (Giles) arrived back at Oleksandria late yesterday evening from Kiev, after a 4 1/2 hour train ride. The trip was quite enjoyable as Zhenia and I shared the compartment with a Spanish couple who were also in the process of adopting --in their case, an 8 year old boy and a 10 year old girl. The couple was traveling with their facilitator to visit their kids. I, unfortunately, have forgotten much of my high school Spanish, but it didn't matter much as the man spoke English fairly well. It turns out that the couple were both doctors, so in addition to talking about adoption, food, politics, and siestas, we were able to "talk shop" and compare notes on the medical systems in our respective countries. Meanwhile, Zhenia and the other facilitator hit it right off, jabbering away in Russian. We shared tea, cookies, and great conversation--all-in-all a very enjoyable trip.
Interesting how it started, though. We arrived at the train station to catch the midnight train to Kiev. Easy, right? Unfortunately the train was sold out and no tickets were available. Zhenia, quite the resourceful fellow that he is, didn't seem terribly concerned. The key, he says, is simply talking to the right person--in this case the chief ticket collector on the train. No problem. I'm thinking to myself, I can't wait to see how this unfolds. So 10 minutes later, the 18-car train pulls into the station for a 2 minute stop and we find ourselves running urgently down the platform looking for, who we hope, is the chief ticket person, with me praying to myself silently. And wouldn't you know it, the first person he talks to just happens to be the one with the authority to let us unto the train. Furthermore, the car, on whose stairs she was standing, just happened to be have two beds available. Of course, there were no sheets, my nose told me that our compartment was right next to the bathroom, and it must have been about 50 degrees, but hey, we made it onto the train and had a place to sleep, so no complaints from us. Actually, the whole thing was quite a blast! (I'm not sure that Deb would have felt the same way, though...) Overall, I must say that Ukrainian trains are a definite step up from the trains I road in China a number of years ago.
Chris (Zahar) is still in the hospital. We've been told that he's been telling everyone that when he leaves, he's going home with his family. We all miss the little guy terribly and hope that he'll be discharged this weekend, but who knows. We're still amazed that children over here are routinely admitted to 1-2 week stays in the hospital for nothing more than a low-grade fever, but that's how the system works. (American insurance companies would shudder)
Until next time!
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